Bucket-cleaning means for excavating-wheels.



A. V. WADSWORTH.

BUCKET CLEANING MEANS FOR .EXCAVATING WHEELS.

APPLI CATION FILED MAY 14. I9I5.

Patented Oct. 23, 1917.

STATES rare OFFTfiE.

ARTHUR V. WADSWOIR-TH, OF FINDLAY, OHIO, ASSIGNORTO THE BUCKEYE TRACTION DITCHEIB, COMPANY, OF FINDLAY, OHIO, A GORPORATION OF OHIO.

BUCKET-CLEANING MEANS FOR EXCAVATING-WHEELS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented oat. 23, let 7.

' Application filed May 14, 1915. Serial No. 28,016.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ARTHUR V. WADS- WORTH, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Findlay, in the county of Hancock and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Bucket-Cleaning Means for Excavating-Wheels; and I do hereby de clare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the characters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to excavating machines of the rotary cutter type, and particularly to cleaning means for the cutter bucket.

The object of my invention is the provision of an improved cleaning device of the character described which is simple, strong and durable in its construction, capable of being easily and quickly applied to or removed from a machine, and adapted not only to force soil of a clay-like or plastic nature from the cutter buckets but also. to cut or break it up preparatory to being delivered to the conveyer.

A further objectof the invention is the provision of a cleaner of the character described which, in addition to cleaning out the cutter wheel buckets, will scrape the inner sides of the cutter wheelrims to efiectually clean the soil therefrom.

.The invention is fully described in the following specification, and while, in its broader aspect, it is capable of embodiment in numerous forms, a preferred embodiment thereof is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the cutter portion of the machine embodying my invention with parts broken away. Flg. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the cleaner,

Referring to the drawings, 1, 1 designate the horizontally spaced parallel beams of the cutter wheel carrying frame of a ditching or excavating machine of the rotary cutter type, and 2 the cutter wheel which is mounted for rotary movements between the frame beams 1, l and is carried and guided for such movements by a set of idler wheels 3, a portion of which engage each rim 2 of the cutter wheel at the inner edge thereof, as is well understood in the art. The cutter wheel 2 carries a set of buckets 4 around the periphery thereof and each of these buckets is preferably provided at its rear end with a set of spaced fingers 5, which project rearward and inward therefrom between the wheel rims.

The cleaner embodying my invention comprises a plurality of transversely spaced outter bars or fingers which, in the present instance, are four in number, the two center fingers being designated 6 and the two outer fingers 'being designated 7. The cleaner fingers 6 and 7 are preferably of curved.

. bars or fingers and are pivotally connectedpreferably by bolts 10 to'ears 11, 11, which are mounted in longitudinally spaced relation on a bar 12, which extends between and is bolted or otherwise suitably secured at its ends to the under sides of the frame beams 1, 1. The bar 12 is located within the cutter-wheel 2 so that the cleaner member may project upward therefrom in position for the outer ends of it's fingers to extend up between the rims 2 of the wheel from the inner side thereof and work through the buckets 4 when the wheel is rotated. The cleaner member stands 'at an incline and has its free end portion curved in buckets and to a direction opposed to the direction of rotation of the cutter wheel, as shown in Fig. 1.

The cleaner 6, 7 is rigidly held in properly adjusted relation to the cutter-wheel by a U-shaped or bail-like bracing member 13, the loop portion of which passes through U bolts employed to connect the two finger clamping bars of the clamping means 8, while the free ends of the legs of the member 13 are adjustably connected to cars 14:, which are secured to and rise from the tops of the frame beams 1, 1 adjacent to the rear edge of the cutter wheel. The legs of the bracing member 18, in the present instance, project through apertures in the ears 14 and are rigidly secured in adjusted relation thereto by nuts 15, which are threaded thereon at opposite sides of the ears. The outer cutter-bars or fingers 7 of the cleaner member are intended to have scraping contact with the inner sides of the respective wheel rims to free soil of a clay-like or plastic nature therefrom, and to facilitate such action the forward edges of the side fingers 7 are preferably sharpened or beveled, as indicated in Fig. 4.

- The soil or other material which is cleaned from the buckets at the upper side of the wheel is intended to drop onto a subjacent conveyer apron 16 by which. it is delivered to one side of the trench being cut. A deflector plated? is secured to the front side of the cleaner member at a point aj acent the wheel rim and serves to engage the soil or dirt which passes down the cleaner from the deflect or guide its movement onto the conveyer 16. The deflector plate '17, in the present instance, is secured to one of the finger clamping bars or plates of the clamping means 8.

lit is apparent in the use of my improved bucket cleaner that the outer or cleaning end thereof will successively pass through the buckets 4 of the wheel as they revolve during a digging operation, and that the fingers 6 and 7 of the cleaner member will force the soil from the buckets and tend to cut or break it up. This cutting or breakv1s1on of the inturned fingers 5 on the buckets 4 as the fingers of the cleaner pass between the fingers 5 in alternating relation thereto. The bucket fingers 5 also serve to clean the soil from the cleaner fingers, and are found to be quite important when operating in heavy soil. The fingers 5 also tend to increase the capacity of the bucket and to direct the delivery of material inwardly of the wheel to the conveyer apron.

I wish it understood that my invention is not limited to any specific construction, arrangement or form of the parts, except in so far as such limitations are specified in the claims.

Having thus described my invention, what up action is also facilitated by the pro-- eagues I claim as new, and desire to secure by-Letters Patent, is,

1. In a machine of the class described, the combination with a cutter wheel having cutter buckets. on its periphery, and a frame carrying said wheel, of more than two relatively thin cutting blades lying respectively in parallel planes circumferentially of the wheel and in substantially the same plane transversely thereof, said blades adjustably rising from said frame within the wheel with their outer ends projected up within said buckets.

2. In a machine of the class described, the combination with a cutter wheel comprising a pair of transversely spaced rims and having cutter buckets carried by said rims and opening interiorly of the wheel, and a frame carrying said wheel, of a plurality of blades greater than two secured together with their outer ends in transversely spaced relation, said blades being adjustably carried by said frame and having their free ends projected up between the wheel rims and into position to pass through the buckets as the wheel revolves, said blades being diagonally disposed with respect to the portions of the wheel rims between whichthey project with the outer of said blades only having scraping contact with the inner sides of the respective rims, and means pivotally attached to said blades and adjustably connected to said frame and serving to maintain the blades in predetermined adjustment with respect to the frame and wheel.

3. In a machine of the'class described, the combination with a frame and a cutter wheel rotatably mounted in said frame, said wheel having transversely spaced rims and peripherally disposed cutter buckets carried by said rims and each provided with a plurality of rearwardly projecting fingers, of a bucket cleaning member carried by said frame within the wheel and having its outer end provided with more than two transversely spaced blades disposed to pass through the wheel buckets when the wheel is revolved andto alternate with and have a combing action through the bucket fingers, the outer of said blades having scraping contact with the inner sides of the respective wheel rims.

4. lin a machine of the class described, the combinationwith a frame and a cutter wheel rotatably mounted in said frame and having a pair of transversely spaced rims and cutter buckets peripherally carried by said rims, of a pair of blades pivotally rising from said frame within the wheel and having scraping contact with the inner sides of said rims and adapted to pass at their free ends through said buckets when the wheel is revolved, a plurality of intermediate blades carried by said first blades in transversely spaced relation to each other and the said first blades and adapted to pass throughsaid buckets in spaced relation to their sides when the wheel is revolved whereby to cooperate with said first blades 5 to cut the material contained in the buckets into a plurality of parts, and means adjustably connecting said blades and frame to maintain the blades in predetermined adjustment with respect to the frame and wheel. 10

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto signed my name to this specification.

ARTHUR v. WADSWORTH. 

